Konstfack Research Seminar: Research platform Microhistories

A research platform is a collective of individuals whose research is united by common themes. The platforms are formed organically as researchers with common interests and goals come together. Every teacher, researcher, and student at Konstfack that associate their practice with a research platform is welcome to join the platform and be a part of the network.

This seminar will be hosted by the Microhistories platform. The aim of this platform is to investigate and develop a series of tools and methodologies for a speculative artistic historiography in theory and practice, in partnership with contemporary cultural and heritage institutions and an international network of artists and researchers. After an introduction by Magnus Bärtås, platform leader and head of research at Konstfack, we will present and discuss two works in progress.

Mathew Gregory: "RÅ: composing for ecological pasts and futures"
Folklore has often emerged from, and reflected, complex tensions between human habitation, the landscape, the other-than-human, and a fragile ecological balance: a web of relationships within which nature is not framed as other, and where all things have agency. Conducted as music research through the composition and performance of new orchestral work, this project focuses upon premodern Swedish folklore as a means through which to reimagine human / other-than-human relations.

William J. Andersson, Jens Schildt, Iréne Thisner: "Elsie Svennås"
Elsie Svennås (1921–1996) was a Swedish graphic designer and teacher, she is the author of a number of embroidery lettering books, published in multiple large editions in multiple languages. Despite being one of the most published Swedish designers, Svennås remains largely unknown. Our project research focuses on her work and life, exploring the value of craft, design historiography, and marking as artistic practice.